Re: dcbl letter of debt recovery says 'Unpaid CCJ'

[Rosa23]

Letter from dcbl received last week giving 14 days to make payment of £307 as Debt Recovery on Unpaid CCJ.

This is pertaining to a Parkingeye notice issued in August 2025.  It was challenged at the time, and rejected as usual.  Was sent a POPLA reference which was used to write to them in October '25, but received no response from POPLA.    

No other correspondence received at all until April 2026, when Driver moved from that address.

By that time, this matter had been forgotten - especially as there had been no relevant communication - thus, new address had not been forwarded.  

This Debt Recovery letter dated 30/09/26 has been received at Driver's new address, and was a surprise, as there had been no contact in the many intervening months.

Driver has written to DPO of both PE & DCBL with new address notification, and subject access request, and intends to call Parkingeye for more information tomorrow, as they were closed when call made previously.

It appears that dcbl has proceeded to court with a Claim - without informing the Driver/Defendant.   

If a CCJ has been made in absentia (obviously an unjust situation), how can it be pursued for a 'set aside' ?

As it's urgent, would greatly appreciate any advice.

Thank you

[Rosa23]

Images of the letter received are here:

https://ibb.co/zVqWSQSS

https://ibb.co/W4Z7CJNG

PE & DCBL have not played fair when they (seemingly) knowingly went ahead with a claim without Defendant being at all aware.

[Rosa23]

Have phoned dcbl who says they do not have a date for the CCJ, and was passed on the name by ParkingEye on 28/09/26 for collection purposes.

Called PE, but can only get the Payment options.

Would CNBC have more details?  

What is your advice?

Thank you for attention.

[b789]

@Rosa23, do not waste any further time contacting DCBL. They are merely debt collectors and have no useful role in resolving this situation.

The immediate priority is to establish the details of the County Court Judgment (CCJ), which appears to have been obtained by default without you ever receiving the Letter of Claim (LoC) or the N1SDT Claim Form.

We do not yet know whether ParkingEye issued the claim themselves or instructed DCB Legal to act on their behalf. That should become clear once you have obtained the court documents.

Your first task, and this is URGENT, is to telephone the Civil National Business Centre (CNBC) on 0300 123 1056 TODAY.

If you cannot get through today, telephone first thing tomorrow morning, preferably at around 8:30am, when the lines open.

You need to establish:

1. The claim number.
2. The date the claim was issued.
3. The address to which the claim form was sent.
4. The date the default judgment was entered.
5. The identity of the claimant's legal representative, if any.
6. The amount of the judgment.

Also request copies of the original claim form and default judgment.

The reason this is so urgent... If the CCJ is more than one calendar month old, it will ordinarily remain on the Register of Judgments for six years unless set aside, even if subsequently paid in full.

As ParkingEye has already passed the matter to DCBL for collection, I suspect that the judgment may already be more than a month old.

You should therefore be looking to have the judgment set aside under CPR 13.2, which requires the court to set aside a default judgment where it was wrongly entered (mandatory set aside).

Under CPR 6.9, where a claimant has reason to believe the defendant no longer resides at the address being used for service, it must take reasonable steps to ascertain their current address. If ParkingEye failed to comply and the claim form was not validly served, that provides the basis for a mandatory set-aside.

However, before incurring the £321 fee for a contested application, I would first give ParkingEye, or DCB Legal if they issued the claim on ParkingEye's behalf, an opportunity to agree to a set-aside by consent, entirely at their expense. A consent application costs £126, considerably less than a contested application.

Once we have the claim details, we can send the appropriate party a formal request requiring them to:

• Agree to the default judgment being set aside by consent.
• Pay the £126 application fee themselves.
• Cooperate in submitting the necessary consent order to the court.
• Confirm their agreement within seven working days of receipt of the request.
• Suspend all debt collection and enforcement activity pending resolution.

The request will make clear that, should they refuse or fail to respond within those seven working days, you intend to make a contested application under CPR 13.2, seeking an order that the claimant reimburse the £321 application fee and any other recoverable costs.

Those costs are ultimately at the court's discretion, but offering the claimant an opportunity to resolve the matter reasonably before making a contested application will strengthen the argument for recovering them.

Do not pay DCBL, do not agree to pay the underlying parking charge, and do not agree to bear the costs of correcting a judgment obtained through defective service.

There is no guarantee that ParkingEye will cooperate, so we should be ready to submit the N244 application promptly if necessary. If enforcement becomes imminent (unlikely for a claim under £600), we should not wait for the seven-working-day deadline to expire.

For now, your absolute priority is to obtain the information from CNBC. Please report back as soon as you have it, particularly the claim issue date, judgment date, service address, identity of the party handling the litigation and the Particulars of Claim (PoC).

We can then prepare the formal request for consent to set aside the judgment at the claimant's expense.

[Rosa23]

Hello b789,

Having checked CCJ register, we find that judgment has been made on 4th August 2026, but until the DCBL Debt Recovery letter was received last week, the Driver had no clue as to what was happening.  Claimant appears to have waited long enough to see the relevant time expire.

So it has gone past the 30 day limit to be able to file the N244.  Should payment be made now - within the prescribed 14 days?

Even if payment is made, the course of this matter has been unjust.  Is there any remedy? 

What steps can be taken to bring an action against PE & DCB Legal?

Here's hoping you have had time to peruse these posts....

Many thanks

[b789]

@Rosa23, DO NOT PAY ANYTHING TO DCBL! Paying the £307 now will not make the CCJ disappear from your credit record.

You have misunderstood the significance of the 30-day period. That is the period within which a CCJ must be paid in full for it to be completely removed from the Register on the grounds of payment. Paying the CCJ after 30 days have elapsed does NOT remove it. It simply marks it as "satisfied". However, that would remain on the record for 6 years and is only slightly less financially painful that one that is outstanding. They aim here is to get it completely removed from the record.

There is NO 30-day deadline for applying to have a default judgment set aside using Form N244.

The judgment was entered on 4 August 2026, but you only discovered its existence last week. You can still apply to have it set aside. Indeed, that is precisely what we intend to pursue.

Under CPR 13.2, the court MUST set aside a default judgment if it was wrongly entered. If the claim form was not validly served, the conditions for obtaining default judgment will not have been satisfied.

The important thing now is to act promptly.

However, before I can advise you on the precise steps to take, you MUST contact the Civil National Business Centre (CNBC) on 0300 123 1056, as previously advised.

You need to obtain the following information:

1. The claim number.
2. The date the claim was issued.
3. The address to which the claim form was sent.
4. The date the default judgment was entered (which we now know was 4 August 2026).
5. The identity of the claimant's legal representative, if any.
6. The amount of the judgment.
7. The full details of the Particulars of Claim.

Also ask CNBC to email all the details while you are on the phone with them and, of possible, copies of the original claim form and judgment.

If you cannot get through today, telephone first thing tomorrow morning, preferably around 8:30am.

One important distinction: DCBL (Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd) and DCB Legal Ltd are two separate companies, albeit related. DCBL are the debt collectors who have written to you. DCB Legal is a firm of solicitors that issues and conducts county court claims on behalf of parking operators. Do not confuse the two.

At present, we do not know whether ParkingEye conducted the litigation itself or instructed DCB Legal. The court documents should establish that.

Once you have obtained the information from CNBC, I will advise you exactly what to write to ParkingEye or DCB Legal, depending on who conducted the litigation.

The intention is to require the claimant to agree to a set-aside by consent, at its own expense, giving it seven working days to respond. If it refuses or fails to cooperate, we can proceed with a contested N244 application and seek recovery of the application fee and any other recoverable costs.

There is no point discussing separate legal action against ParkingEye or DCB Legal at this stage. Our immediate objective is to have the default judgment set aside and removed from the Register.

For now, do not pay DCBL, do not enter into any repayment arrangement and do not waste any further time communicating with them.

Please obtain the CNBC information and report back. Until we have those essential details, I cannot properly determine the next steps.

The longer this is left unresolved, the longer the CCJ remains on the Register. Please treat this as urgent.

[Rosa23]

Hello b789,

Thank you for your reply - which I didn't see till a few minutes ago.  That was so timely, as it prevented making payment the Driver was thinking to be only course of action.

Hoping to get more info, managed to get through to CNBC this afternoon, but after being on hold for over 1 hour, the chap on the other side went off line or cut off.  Tried again soon after but without much luck.

Shall try again tomorrow morning as you advise.

They seem to want a reference number which we do not have.  

The only number now with us is the one indicated on the CCJ Register - but that probably makes no sense to CNBC.

What information should be given to CNBC for them to find what is needed by us?  Would just name of Defendant along with date of CCJ be adequate?

[b789]

@Rosa23, the reference number shown on the official CCJ Register should be the court claim number. That is precisely the number CNBC needs to identify the proceedings.

Check the TrustOnline report for the entry headed "Case Number". Do not confuse this with the TrustOnline search reference or receipt number.

If you have the case number, quote it when you telephone CNBC. You should not need to search for anything else.

If, for some reason, you cannot identify the claim number, explain that you have discovered a default judgment which you knew nothing about and provide:

1. The claim number.
2. The date the claim was issued.
3. The address to which the claim form was sent.
4. The date the default judgment was entered (which we now know was 4 August 2026).
5. The identity of the claimant's legal representative, if any.
6. The amount of the judgment.
7. The full details of the Particulars of Claim.

Ask CNBC to locate the case using those details. Name and judgment date alone may not be sufficient, but the additional information should help them search.

Once the case has been identified, obtain the six items of information I previously requested, particularly the claim issue date, address used for service and identity of any solicitors acting for ParkingEye.

You have already spent considerable time trying to contact CNBC. Their telephone lines open at 8:30am, so try again first thing tomorrow morning.

Please do not contact DCBL or pay them anything.

Once you have the court information, report back here. We can then prepare the formal request for ParkingEye, or DCB Legal if they conducted the litigation, to consent to the judgment being set aside at the claimant's expense, with a strict seven-working-day deadline.

We need to move quickly, but we also need the correct information before taking the next step.

Registry Trust expressly confirms that its judgment records contain the court case number, which is the reference the court uses to identify the proceedings.

[Rosa23]

Thank you very much!

Here's hoping tomorrow's call to CNBC will be fruitful....

[Rosa23]

Good Morning,


Below is info from CNBC:

Claim ref:  388857/564384  (same as on initial notice from PE)

Date Claim issued:  6th July 2026

Address to which Claim form was sent:  19 Crisp Road, London W6 9RL

Date default judgment was entered:  4 August 2026

Identity of Claimant's Legal rep:  Parking Eye Ltd - 7359

Amount of judgment: £237


Driver moved from above address in April '26.

Forgot to obtain details of Particulars of Claim for which will call them again & report back.  Trust this is adequate to get started.

Thanks for your attention.

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Hi,

The Particulars of Claim noted on the case is Charge for parking at Crowne Plaza, Stratford on Avon on 20/08/2025, giving vehicle registration.

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To obtain copies of documents from CNBC by email apparently takes about 5 days, and has to be from their Case Progression section.  Request will be made today.